A fellow citywatcher told me I should ask for a copy of the DeKalb-Taylor Municipal Airport (DTMA) Business Plan. So I did. He must be laughing right now, knowing (I am sure) that there isn’t one. That’s right, the $350,000 per year black hole has no plan to change.
City Watch: Mystery Solved*
City Watcher Thought #2 on Friday the 13th: Rental Inspection Program
In reading the first of two ordinances critical to the proposed Rental Inspection program, I see nothing in the proposed “Chronic Nuisance Property Abatement” ordinance (start on p. 10) that limits it to rental properties. No property owner would be safe from being called a chronic nuisance and summoned to a legal proceeding at City…
City Watcher Thought #1 on Friday the 13th: Abandonment of City Manager
The Revoke Home Rule movement began earlier, but I am finding as I talk to well-informed neighbors that there is nearly if not just as much support for a referendum on abandoning the Council-Manager form of city government. Some believe the manager position should be abolished to make it clearer where the buck stops, but…
City Spending has been Growing at Twice the Rate of Inflation
Mac has made the Financial Advisory Committee’s recommendations available at his site. Spoiler alert! This post contains the money quote (heh), from FAC member Tom Teresinski. Tom Teresinski Overview – A Perspective I. Spending – Per City Report: (000) General Fund – Spending (1998): $14,535.8; (2009) $28,167.0 % Growth: 93.8 Avg % Increase 0ver 11…
Mac’s Budget Recommendations
Click here for one Financial Advisory Committee member’s recommendations for DeKalb’s FY2009 budget. Then comment, here and/or at Mac’s.
FPC Bombshell
The Facilities Planning Committee began planning “Phase II” of the school construction plan last night, but I could not concentrate. Part of it was brain-deadness because these meetings run too darn long, part of it was shock. Here’s why: No matter what we do to cut construction costs, we will still not come under the…
Note from Ivan on the Cop Shop
Update: The meeting dates for the Police Facility Advisory Committee are Wednesday, June 11; Thursday, June 19; and Thursday, June 26; all at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers. [Once again, Ivan Krpan brings us one of his “comments”–this time on the city’s advisory committee for the new police station–that should have been a post in…
The Absurdity of the Airport, & Other Budget Tales
Tonight at the budget workshop I remarked that it was kind of nonsensical and backwards (exact words) to continue to carry this albatross of an airport (paraphrase) when the police department does not have adequate facilities. Later in the evening, I was rebutted with a pretty picture presented by Public Works Director Rick Monas of…
District 428 & the Grassroots: Yeah, Right: Part 2
This is an “I told you so” diary. I wasn’t going to do it but am upset enough about the latest on the Facilities Planning Committee that it just seems fair at this point. January 5th I wrote about the overlap between ReNew Our Schools and the Chamber of Commerce. It just seemed like ReNew…